About this lesson
Secure your most important data from a disaster and backup your contacts!
Quick reference
Contacts Backup
Secure your most important data from a disaster and BACKUP your contacts!
When to use
More often than necessary, we hear about SmartPhone synchronizing that ruins, rather than secures, your contacts file. By pre-emptively running a backup, you will be a step ahead of a potential loss of data.
Instructions to Export, “Back up”, Contacts
- Click the File Ribbon
, Options 
, Advanced 
- Locate the Export section
and click Export 
- Choose “Export to a File” and click Next:
- Choose a file type:
Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook
Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only
- Select the Folder to Export from:
- Outlook auto-names the file “Backup.pst”
- You should rename it to “Contacts Backup.pst”
- You should click BROWSE and store this file somewhere safe on your computer or on a USB removable drive.
- Click Finish
- Tips:
- Make your backup files individually for Email, Calendar, and Contacts. Then in the case that you just need to restore Contacts, you won’t overwrite months of new emails with old ones.
- Name your backup files accordingly and include the date in the name, i.e.:
Email backup, 05-05-16
Calendar backup, 05-07-16
Contacts backup, 06-08-16
Instructions to Import, “Restore”, Contacts
- Click the File Ribbon , Options , Advanced
- Locate the Export section
and click Export
- Choose “Import from another program or File” and click Next:
- Choose a file type: (pick the same type you chose when exporting)
Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook
Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only
- Click Browse and find your file:
- Select which folder to import from: (should be the only folder unless you have done many of these)
Click FINISH
- 00:04 I'd like to talk to you about backing up your contacts file,
- 00:08 also known as exporting your file to a safety file like an excel file or
- 00:13 another contacts friendly folder.
- 00:16 So if you'll click on your file ribbon, over here on the left is Options.
- 00:21 When I activate Options, we have a list on the left-hand side, please click Advanced.
- 00:26 When you click Advanced, scroll down just a little bit and
- 00:28 you'll see an area that says Export.
- 00:31 I would like that to also say Import because this is where you would go
- 00:34 to bring that list back into Outlook.
- 00:37 So right over here on the right we'll click the Export button.
- 00:41 In here is the first time you see the words Import.
- 00:45 We are actually going to export to a file and click next and you need to choose.
- 00:50 Comma separated values means it can be accessed via an Excel folder or file.
- 00:56 And Outlook Data File is I'm going to stay in the Outlook environment, so
- 00:59 I'm going to choose that one.
- 01:01 I'm gonna go ahead and hit Next.
- 01:03 Now it wants to know which folder do you want to export from.
- 01:05 Notice I can choose my Inbox, I can choose my Calendar,
- 01:08 I'm working on Contacts right now.
- 01:10 And there is an arrow because I have multiple contact folders.
- 01:13 And it also says right here, includes subfolders.
- 01:15 In this case, yes.
- 01:16 Any subfolders, I want those also exported.
- 01:20 If I need to click filter and filter out zip codes or states,
- 01:23 I could do that as well.
- 01:25 I'll go ahead and click Next, and
- 01:27 now it wants to know where you're going to send it.
- 01:29 Now this is the first time we see the word backup.
- 01:32 It is the default file name.
- 01:33 That is fine, you can leave it as backup.
- 01:36 I would certainly hit browse, and I would file it in my own safe place,
- 01:40 probably on my desktop.
- 01:42 And now I'm gonna go ahead and hit, I generally ignore these options, and
- 01:46 I go ahead and hit Finish.
- 01:48 Mine's going to happen very quickly.
- 01:49 I'm not gonna password protect mine so
- 01:53 I'm just gonna let it blank and hit OK and it happened that fast.
- 01:58 If you have a lot of files,
- 01:59 you'll see little papers flying through the air right now.
- 02:02 All right, when I close this you can bet that I've got a file
- 02:06 out on my desktop that's waiting for that.
- 02:08 Now should the time come that I want to re-import those,
- 02:12 maybe a sync happened with my phone and it destroyed my contacts.
- 02:16 I hear of this happening more frequently than it should.
- 02:19 So, File > Actions > Advanced go down to the Export, click Export,
- 02:25 and this time we would Import from Another Program or File.
- 02:30 I would hit Next, I am looking for an Outlook Data File,
- 02:34 cuz that's how I saved mine, hit Next.
- 02:37 I would go find it, browse to my desktop.
- 02:42 And there's my file and Open, and then I would hit Next.
- 02:49 And it's going to ask me, where do you want them to land?
- 02:51 And that is fine, and I will hit Finish.
- 02:54 And when I close that I should have all my files here and
- 02:59 I do actually it looks like it made a contact archives for me.
- 03:03 So that is how you export and that is how you import.
- 03:06 Same process, it's just not identified.
- 03:09 But overall it's called a back up
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